Retro Replay Review

Gameplay

The Augmented Edition’s immediate hook is not a new way to play; it is the feeling that you have bought a more complete physical package around the game. Once you have settled in, the bonus disc becomes the natural follow-up: a 44-minute making-of gives you something substantial to watch when you want more than a trailer or a quick promotional extra.

That makes this a better fit for the gamer who likes to linger with a favorite release. The soundtrack is especially useful in that respect. It turns the edition into something you can revisit away from the controller, rather than a box whose extras are exhausted in five minutes.

Go in with the right reason for choosing it. The listed additions are archival and behind-the-scenes material, so the value comes from your interest in the game and its creation, not from chasing a different gameplay experience. If you mainly want to start playing as cheaply and simply as possible, this is a luxury purchase; if you enjoy collector editions with things to explore after a session, it earns its shelf space.

Graphics

The tangible standout is the 40-page hardcover art book. Unlike a digital gallery buried in menus, it gives the game’s artwork room to breathe on the page and makes the edition feel more deliberate than a standard case-and-disc release.

The animated storyboard and motion graphic novel add a second visual angle. They are not just static bonus files: they give you artwork and story material in formats made to be watched, which helps the package feel varied.

Story

The motion graphic novel is the most important extra for anyone drawn to the game’s fiction. It is a proper companion piece rather than a bullet point on the back of the box, and it gives story-minded fans another way to spend time in this world.

Its usefulness depends on whether you enjoy supplementary narrative material. If you are the sort of gamer who reads codex entries, watches bonus videos, and wants a little more context around a favorite game, the novel has real value. If you only care about the main campaign, it may sit unopened beside the disc.

The animated storyboard also makes the creative process part of the story package. Seeing a story-related work at that earlier, illustrative stage can be more interesting than another polished trailer, particularly if you like comparing an idea’s rougher form with its finished counterpart.

Overall Experience

This is a strong special edition because its extras have some weight to them. A 44-minute making-of, a soundtrack, a motion graphic novel, an animated storyboard, and a hardcover art book make for more than the usual token bundle of downloadable trinkets.

The package is also pleasantly focused. Everything here points back toward the same game: its music, its art, its marketing, its narrative material, and the work that went into making it. That coherence matters. You are not sorting through unrelated filler just because a publisher wanted to call something an edition.

Buy the Augmented Edition if Deus Ex: Human Revolution is a game you expect to care about beyond the first playthrough. The payoff is a compact collection that invites you to watch, read, listen, and look back afterward. For a newcomer with no interest in physical extras, the standard game is likely enough; for a fan, this is the version with a reason to exist.

Retro Replay Score

7.5/10